MA brochure - Modern Poetry - Queen's University Belfast

Why Poetry at Queen’s?
Poetry is intricately intertwined with the history of
Queen’s University Belfast. The university has a
proud tradition of nurturing creative and critical
talents in the field of poetry. Nobel Laureate
Seamus Heaney, a graduate of, and former lecturer
at Queen’s was a founding member of the ‘Belfast
Group’ in the 1960s, in which the early careers of
other internationally renowned poets -­‐ Paul
Muldoon and Michael Longley among them – were
forged, and in which poets engaged with leading
critics of modern poetry, such as Philip Hobsbaum
and Edna Longley. The tradition of the Belfast
Group continues in the Seamus Heaney Centre for
Poetry, and in the commitment it has to the
interaction of creative and critical activity.
Postgraduate students who choose to study
Modern Poetry in the School of English at Queen’s
will be joining an academic environment with a
long-­‐standing reputation for the critical
appreciation, reception and understanding of
poetry from Ireland, Britain and the United States.
Poets who come to Queen’s to develop their own
writing have the unique opportunity of working in
the Seamus Heaney Centre with some of Ireland’s
finest poets .
Academic Environment
The School of English, together with the Seamus
Heaney Centre for Poetry, is the largest English
department in Ireland with a dedicated and
growing postgraduate student community. We are
home to over 100 Masters and research students
and host readings, lectures and seminars
throughout the year.
Together with the University of Dublin, University
College Dublin, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
and An Chomhairle Ealaoin (Arts Council of
Ireland), the School and the Heaney Centre c0-­‐host
the prestigious Ireland Chair of Poetry with the
holder attached to each university in turn for a year
at a time. Since its inception in 1998 the holders
have been John Montague, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill,
Paul Durcan, and Michael Longley; the current
Chair (2010-­‐13) is Harry Clifton.
Resources and Facilities
The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry is an
internationally recognized centre for the study as
well as the production of poetry. A dynamic and
vibrant focal point in Ireland for writing, for
criticism, and for the appreciation of modern
literature, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry
promotes an ethos of lively exchange between
poets, critics and students under its Director, the
internationally renowned poet Professor Ciaran
Carson, and its assistant director, the critic Dr Fran
Brearton. The poets and poet-­‐critics Ms Medbh
McGuckian, Dr Sinead Morrissey and Dr Leontia
Flynn are based in the Centre, along with Professor
Emerita Edna Longley, one of the leading critics of
Irish poetry and literature, who continues to
challenge and define the categories and canons of
modern poetry. Critics of modern poetry in the
School also include Professor Edward Larrissy, Dr
Fran Brearton, Dr Philip McGowan, and Dr Gail
McConnell.
The Centre’s journal of contemporary writing, The
Yellow Nib, is published twice a year. The Centre
runs a programme of literary events fortnightly
each semester enabling students to hear some of
the finest writers of our time firsthand.
The new McClay Library at Queen’s offers students
world-­‐leading facilities and research resources
including extensive archival materials (Seamus
Heaney’s Beowulf papers for example) and rare
books in the field of modern Irish poetry.
Postgraduate students have access to work and
computing facilities in the School of English and
the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry as well as in
the Humanities Postgraduate Centre and the
International and Postgraduate Student Centre,
located opposite the McClay Library.